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The man was also on the phone but, when police asked it, found there was nobody on the other end.

Then, at 10pm on August 21, the complainant was drinking in the west Hull street when Sawyers approached him and said "You reckon you can do me then", before striking him in the cheek with an unseen weapon.

Vincent Blake-Barnard, prosecuting, said the man "didn't say he fell to the ground, but he felt the sharpness of it.

"He put his hand to his face, realised he was bleeding profusely, and went to seek help at a local Sainsbury's".

'TRAGIC LIFE SINCE BIRTH': Robert Sawyers, who has been jailed for attacking a fellow street drinker in Spring Bank

He was given first-aid at the store before being taken by ambulance to Hull Royal Infirmary, where he stayed for three days before discharging himself.

He had 35 stitches to repair the unusual "J-shape" wound. After asking the man to stand in the witness box so he could see it, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said the surgeons had done an "exceptional job".

The victim had identified his attacker as "Bobby" and Sawyers was arrested the day after the attack. Sawyers, of Clarendon Street, west Hull, declined to answer questions in interview but was picked out in an identity procedure, and admitted wounding with intent on the day he was due to stand trial.

Drinkers on Spring Bank

He had 19 previous offences on his record including aggravated vehicle taking, attempted robbery, violent disorder, affray and possessing weapons.

The court heard Sawyers was a man with "substantial, complex, multi-layered difficulties", whose life had been "tragic" almost from the moment he was born.

His father died when he was young; his brother, who was close to him in age, died from a drug overdose when Sawyers was 15, and he "lost his head" when his sister committed suicide five years ago, Dale Brook, defending, said.

It was likely that his cerebral palsy was a result of a "traumatic birth", while Sawyers had learning difficulties and "long-standing" mental health problems.